Sequins are a serious business. In fact, for a small British company
responsible for the ballroom dancing gowns on the BBC’s flagship Saturday
evening show Strictly Come Dancing, they are its business.

DSI’s Croydon factory houses scores of seamstresses who have been working around the clock to supply the wardrobe for the programme’s launch on Saturday night and the rest of the series, which runs until Christmas.Photo: Clara Molden

DSI’s Croydon factory houses scores of seamstresses who have been working around the clock to supply the wardrobe for the programme’s launch on Saturday night and the rest of the series, which runs until Christmas.

The hard work doesn’t stop there. DSI provides dresses for competitors entering the International Ballroom Dancing Championships — held at the Royal Albert Hall next month — and the Christmas parade for one of London’s most famous department stores.

“It’s come like a hammer punch,” says managing director and former professional dancer Gerald Schwanzer.

“No doubt the most difficult thing about running the business is balancing cash flow and workload.”

The issues are similar for any businesses that have highly seasonally turnover — often those in the retailing, tourism or entertainment sectors.

As well as the intricately produced gowns, which account for 40pc of DSI’s £4.5m revenues, the company also sells shoes and instruction DVDs via mail order. These high-turnover products help generate healthy working capital reserves all year round. As does the rental business, catering for both the professional and amateur scene.

Schwanzer relies on long-standing, and understanding, suppliers to cope with a frantic autumn. “If I feel a cash crisis coming I tell suppliers in advance — the earlier notification the better,” he says.

A trained lawyer, Schwanzer, who moved to the UK in 1976 to pursue a career as a dancer, manages his supplier and customer interaction like a choreographed routine. “The supplier relationships are as important as the customer relationships,” he explains.

“With the big orders I negotiate small, regular payments from my customers, sometimes months in advance of the deadline. This keeps me going in the quieter months.”

Born in Austria and proud of his British based-business, Schwanzer says: “All our products are made here. And I try to source everything from the UK. If not, I go to Europe.”

While the one-stop-shop dancing business is certainly niche, its challenges are representative of the wider textiles industry. Skilled British seamstresses, for example, are scarce. “Occasionally I find a dance enthusiast that I can mould into a good worker on the administration side but it would take a year to train up a machinist with no experience,” he says.

“If I advertise for a designer I get thousands of applications. They can all draw me a pretty picture but none of them can make a dress. What use is that?”

In order to plug the skills gap DSI recruits seamstresses from Eastern Europe. But, despite the long hours, once the right staff — 60 in total — are recruited they often stay for life and staff turnover at DSI is very low.

When the workload is lighter in the summer months Schwanzer lets his team relax. He says they are extremely motivated by the prestige of seeing their work on prime time television.

Commissioned work from Strictly Come Dancing has been a lifeline during the recession. “I am proud to be the strongest in the home market. Never underestimate the home market,” he says.

Behind the UK, the highest revenues come from exporting to Japan, the US and then Germany. It is the Asian market that has caused Schwanzer sleepless nights.

Ballroom dancing peaked in Japan in the 1990s when the partners of a generation of affluent businessmen took up the hobby.

But 20 years later they have become too old to dance and their children do not have the disposable income to spend up to £2,200 on a dress. This has driven prices down — a top-end outfit that cost 700,000 yen (£4,485) now fetches 350,000 yen.

This decline may be offset by growing popularity in China but “it’s a double-edged sword”, says Schwanzer. “China is a potential export market for us but we’re expensive and under pressure from thousands of mothers out there who have taught themselves to sew.

“In a cottage industry like ours that is how many of these businesses start. [But] I will stick to my philosophy. If a UK customer needs 16 shirts tomorrow, they are not going to get them from China.”

DSI’s distribution in Russia — a massive potential ballroom dancing market — also faces headwinds. “Deliveries can take from three days to 45 days to never.”

So the hours are long and the work intense but, like the contestants in Strictly Come Dancing, DSI is motivated to push on through the blood, sweat and tears.

“It all comes back to passion,” Schwanzer says.

The Telegraph Festival of Business in London on November 12 is free for ambitious companies with annual sales of more than £5m. Secure your place at Telegraph.co.uk/festivalofbusiness